The Diary of A Young Girl: Anne Frank
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charwoman for example then we have to be extra careful. I explained all this
carefully to Dussel. But one thing amazed me: he is very slow on the uptake. He
asks everything twice over and still doesn't seem to remember. Perhaps that
will wear off in time, and it's only that he's thoroughly upset by the sudden
change. (p. 53)
I will for once write more fully about food because it has become a very difficult
and important matter, not only here in the "Secret Annexe" but in the whole of
Holland, all Europe, and even beyond.
In the twenty-one months that we've spent here we have been through a good
many "food cycles", - you'll understand what that means in a minute. When I talk
of "food cycles" I mean periods in which one has nothing else to eat but one
particular dish or kind of vegetable. We had nothing but endive for a long time,
day in, day out, endive with sand, endive without sand, stew with endive, boiled
or en casscrolt; then it was spinach, and after that followed kohlrabi, salsify,
cucumbers, tomatoes, sauerkraut, etc., etc.
For instance, it's really disagreeable to eat a lot of sauerkraut for lunch and
supper every day, but you do it if you're hungry. However, we have the most
delightful period of all now, because we don't get any fresh vegetables at all.
Our weekly menu for supper consists of kidney beans, pea soup, potatoes with
dumplings, potato-chalet and, by the grace of God, occasionally turnip tops or
rotten carrots, and then the kidney beans once again. We eat potatoes at every
meal, beginning with breakfast, because of the bread shortage. We make our